Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Syrian government forces have reclaimed five more districts in the eastern part of Aleppo, according some reports suggest up to 85 percent of the area, previously controlled by rebels, has now been liberated.“By the evening of December 6, the Syrian army established full control over five more neighborhoods in eastern Aleppo,” the Reconciliation Center said in a statement on Tuesday. This puts the number of eastern Aleppo neighborhoods liberated from rebels in the recent offensive by government forces to 35, it said.

Jihadists rebels surrender almost all of east Aleppo.

Syrian state news agency Sana, the Syrian army inflicted “heavy losses” upon militants in five neighborhoods and forced many to flee. The army also reportedly prevented a planned car bomb attack on a military post, which allegedly had been intended to boost the “deteriorating morale of the terrorists.”

Aleppo has been split between the Syrian government and rebel and militant factions since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011. Since operations to liberate the eastern districts of Aleppo in mid-November began, the Syrian army has made successful advances and now controls 65 percent of the city, the military said.

On Monday, two Russian medical specialists were killed and another injured in a mortar attack on a mobile military hospital in Aleppo. Moscow regretted the “more than limited” reaction to the killing of the Russian medic by the international community, in particular from US partners, Russia’s Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.

“The Russian side is virtually single-handedly trying to provide humanitarian assistance to the residents who flee from eastern Aleppo, escaping from the captivity of the militants,”Peskov stressed, adding that the Kremlin would welcome a “more proactive stance”from the West on the issue.

France was the only Western government to officially condemn the shelling of a Russian mobile hospital in Aleppo.“France condemns the December 5 shelling, which targeted a hospital in western part of Aleppo and killed several civilians as well as two medics,” Romain Nadal, French Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in a statement. According to the French side, the Aleppo attack “represent[ed] a new serious violation of the norms of international law.”

“France urges all the parties of the conflict to provide protection to medical workers and medical facilities in accordance with the Resolution 2286 of the UN Security Council (UNSC),”Nadal stressed.